Texans have choice in vaccination alternatives

DONNA WICK

Published 7:00 pm, Thursday, July 7, 2005

In the continuing battle for freedom of choice, Texas has become the 19th state to allow philosophical objections to vaccinations. The Texas law broadens the state's school vaccine exemption categories, allowing parents to seek exemptions from state vaccination requirements for school, based solely on philosophic, rather than religious or medical, reasons.

"Texas has gone from being one of the worst states, to one of the best when it comes to freedom of choice," said Neil Z. Miller, director of Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute. "A philosophical exemption means you don't have to explain anything. You just object to the vaccine."

Think Twice Global Vaccine Institute offers an extensive selection of uncensored information on childhood shots and other immunizations in an attempt to educate parents via full disclosure of all pertinent data that will aid them in their choice of whether or not to vaccinate their children.

"Another child has had a reaction to a vaccine and the doctor will tell parents they don't think it's the vaccine, but only coincidence," Miller said of an e-mail he recently received. "It's like the mercury toxin in vaccinations. Doctors will say that the mercury isn't harmful, yet they are now starting to take it off the market. If it isn't harmful, then why take it off the market?"

According to parents that have had tragic results with vaccines inducing autism in their children, as well as other maladies, the push has been on to find alternatives to the state-mandated vaccination requirements.

Dawn Richardson, president of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, or PROVE, said, "Some children might be predisposed to reactions, or families might feel a certain vaccine isn't necessary for their child."

"Each vaccine is different and each child is different," Richardson said. "We are opposed to one-size-fits-all vaccinations."

PROVE, co-founded by Richardson and Rebecca Rex, is a group of about 3,500 Texas families who have worked for several years to broaden the Texas exemption law.

Richardson's reasons for starting PROVE began in 1997 when she encountered difficulties in finding a physician who would address her concerns about vaccinations for her own children.

"Some families are frustrated with the medical community for not being in more of a partnership position in discussing this issue intelligently with families. There is an air of dismissal from doctors toward concerned parents," Richardson said.

Miller explained that the only argument doctors have for enforcing vaccinations is: "I am the doctor. I know a lot. So do what I say."

However, at least one local doctor feels that vaccinations have reduced a great number of illnesses and they have tremendous merit.

"There has been no direct link to prove that autism is directly attributed to vaccinations," said Dr. Natasha Irani of the Texas Children's Pediatric Associates in The Woodlands. "There are many variable factors. And in the case of Thimerosal, it was never proven that the mercury was harmful in such low dosages. It was decided that since the mercury was not mandated as part of the vaccine, it could be removed, and so it has been."

In the recent report written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. called "Deadly Immunity," school nurse Patti White told the House Government Reform Committee in 1999, "The elementary grades are overwhelmed with children who have symptoms of neurological or immune-system damage. Vaccines are supposed to be making us healthier; however, in 25 years of nursing I have never seen so many damaged, sick kids. Something very, very wrong is happening to our children."

According to the report, more than 500,000 kids currently suffer from autism, and pediatricians diagnose more than 40,000 new cases every year. The disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among 11 children born in the months after Thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931.

"Back in the 1930s the incident of autism was one in zero. There was no autism," Miller said. "Today the incident is one in 166 and boys are more susceptible than girls."